Monday, March 25, 2013

FUNKY WINKERBEAN IN THE SEVENTIES

﻿My pal Tom Batiuk’s Funky Winkerbean comic strip was played mostlyfor laughs in the mid-1970s, but one strip in The Complete FunkyWinkerbean: Volume 2, 1975-1977 [Kent State University Press; $45]was unexpectedly sobering. Dated July 26, 1975, its three panelsshow the teenage Funky watching TV. The unseen commentator on thescreen says:

Finally, in tonight’s news...

...and this’ll kill ya...

...Congress has given up in its attempt to pass strong gun controllegislation.

That was 38 years and so many senseless school and public shootingsago. That was 38 years and so many innocent lives cut short by gunviolence ago. I had to stop reading the book for a while before Icould continue to enjoy the collected strips.

There was always a contemporary feel to Funky Winkerbean. Subjectssuch as school busing and the anxiety over segregation were touchedupon so gently that the reader barely notices the edge Batiuk wasable to bring to these topics.

The book contains the staples of high-school-based comedy. Thereare the perky cheerleaders, the nerds who pine for them, the coach only slightly less pathetic than his incompetent players, teacherstrying to prepare their students for a life in uncertain times andall the rest. But there are also those insane touches I rememberfondly almost four decades later: the cheerleader who sets herselfon fire via flaming baton with alarming frequency, the kid livingin a locker that must be some form of Tardis and the all-powerfulcomputer who screws up class scheduling because it is distracted byits love for Star Trek. Fun stuff.

Amazon is currently selling the book for a third off its list priceand that works out to about ten bucks apiece for each of the threeyears collected in this book. Go for it.

ISBN 978-1-60635-151-2

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Two of my Marvel Comics stories are scheduled to be reprinted laterthis year. Captain Universe: The Hero Who Could Be You #1 [$7.99]reprints the short story in which a toddler, based on my son Eddieat that age, gains the power of Captain Universe. It was drawn bySteve Ditko and features some surprise guest stars. This special104-page comic book also collects Marvel Spotlight #9-11 from 1979plus material from Marvel Fanfare #25, Web of Spider-Man Annual #6and What If? #31. The other writers are Captain Universe creatorBill Mantlo, Gerry Conway and Glenn Herdling. In addition to thestories drawn by Ditko, there are Captain Universe tales drawn byJune Brigman and Scott McDaniel.